Maili school gets
a holiday gift: Air

Construction of long-awaited
air conditioning is beginning

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By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com

Maili Elementary School is getting a cool holiday gift: the start of construction on its long-awaited air-conditioning system to alleviate heat, flies and dust that have burdened the school for years.

"We're just real excited that it's starting," Principal Linda Victor said. "It's just like a Christmas present, or maybe you could call it a New Year's present."

On Dec. 18, K.D. Construction won the bid for $2.9 million of the total $3.5 million project.

It was during the 2000 legislative session that Maili students, parents and teachers marched on the state Capitol to heighten public awareness of their plight at the Leeward Oahu school.

Their demonstration worked. By the end of session, state lawmakers set aside more than $3 million for the project, and the money was released in the fall of last year.

Since then the school, government agencies and the community have been involved in learning about the different air-conditioning systems available and deciding which method would meet the needs of the school before the project was put out for bid, Victor said.

"We were being very cautious in our planning," she said.

The project is actually proceeding on schedule and has been on a "fast track," officials have said. Construction had been slated to begin this month, and the completion date is still set for July of next year, a few days before the start of 2002 the school year. Maili is on a modified year-round schedule.

The school will be getting a chilled-water system, which is currently being used in new school construction.

While construction may take longer than installing other systems such as window air-conditioning units, the chilled-water system will last longer.

"The life of the (window unit) system is much shorter than the chilled water," Victor said.

A total of 50 classrooms, the administration building and the dining area of the cafeteria will be air-conditioned.

"We do want to keep the flies out, and I think that's the major reason," Victor said.

The school is located on the hot, dusty Leeward Coast near chicken and pig farms.

If the school was not being bombarded with odors and flies, teachers and students had to endure hot classrooms in which temperatures at times reached more than 100 degrees. Installing air conditioning was deemed the best solution to deal with those environmental problems.

The first order of business will be to upgrade the school's electrical system and build a water tower.

The school plans to help ease the impact of construction by moving students to six empty classrooms as construction affects their regular rooms.